Robot dogs are being deployed to patrol the US’s southern border with Mexico, attracting criticism that such a move will exacerbate “anti-immigrant dystopia” and the invasive and dehumanising conditions already prevalent in the region.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tueday said it was deploying robot dogs to patrol the country’s southern border with Mexico to assist its Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel.
The goal of the programme, it said, was to leverage technology to increase the presence of CBP at the borders and to reduce “human exposure to life-threatening hazards”.
“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” Brenda Long, programme manager of the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) at DHS, said in a statement.
“This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs.’ Essentially, the AGSV program is all about… robot dogs,” Ms Long added.
Critics had earlier likened the unveiling of the robot dog by the company Ghost Robotics to one of the dystopic, science fiction concepts seen on the TV show Black Mirror.
The company, which is collaborating with the DHS on the deployment, had unveiled the robot dog with a rifle on its back last year.
Critiques of the technology have severely attacked it by saying it was dehumanising and invasive, even as the DHS believes semi-autonomous drones and robot dogs are “force multipliers”.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a nonprofit legal and advocacy organisation, said the Joe Biden administration should cease the programme immediately.
“DHS’s plan to use robot patrol dogs on its borders is a civil liberties disaster in the making. The government must retract this dangerous proposal, and the Biden administration must put the brakes on our country’s slide into an anti-immigrant dystopia,” the ACLU tweeted.
Gavin Kenneally, the chief product officer at Ghost Robotics, however, said the company’s 100-pound robot dog was “bred” to exactly suit the type of work the CBP needed.
“It is a rugged, quadruped robot. It traverses all types of natural terrain including sand, rocks, and hills, as well as human-built environments, like stairs. That’s why you want legs, and not tracks,” Mr Kenneally added.
Despite the harsh, inhospitable conditions at the US-Mexico border, DHS claimed many kinds of illegal activities occur in the arid regions.
“Just like anywhere else, you have your standard criminal behaviour, but along the border you can also have human smuggling, drug smuggling, as well as smuggling of other contraband—including firearms or even potentially, [the trafficking of] WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction],” Brett Becker, of the CBP’s Innovation Team, said.
“These activities can be conducted by anyone from just a lone individual, all the way up to transnational criminal organisations, terrorists or hostile governments—and everything in between,” Mr Becker added.
The desert and mountainous regions also pose several life-threatening risks to agents and officers.
A recent study, published in the journal Science, also noted that this terrain could become more inhospitable in the coming decades due to the ongoing climate crisis, posing increased risk of death due to dehydration among undocumented migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
“Operating out in the desert or mountains, agents and officers have to contend with the rugged terrain, high heat and humidity, and then, of course, they can come across those who wish to do harm,” Mr Becker said.
The robot dogs are currently being tested for their abilities to complete assignments such as sentry duty as well as carrying payloads across rough terrain.
Some of these payloads include video and other sensor packages, which after being mounted onto the robot dog, can transmit real-time video and other data back to the human operating or monitoring them.
Researchers also subjected the robot dogs to scenarios that would require them to move through harsh environments, operate in tight spaces and be unfazed by high heat as well as low oxygen conditions – situations dangerous for CBP agents and officers.
The robot dogs are also programmed to go on simulated sentry duty in daylight as well as at night, with further tests also conducted on battery life and impact of terrain on their endurance.
